Determining viewership of content has long been a need in the content production industry, primarily for the purpose of demonstrating to advertisers that the fees associated with advertising during certain content are warranted. However, historic solutions to determining viewership of content have typically involved the installation of hardware that interfaces directly with the means for delivering the content to the display device on which the content is viewed. This requires additional hardware serving a single purpose and occupying space in the home, something many individuals wish to avoid. Accordingly, there is a need in the art to collect content display information without requiring the installation of additional equipment.
Furthermore, historic solutions are operable to monitor the content being viewed, but not the demographic information of individuals actually present in the room where the content is being displayed. Instead, such demographic information is collected by other means (typically a survey of the residents of the dwelling where the target display device is located) and is applied in a very general sense to all content that is displayed on the target display device. This results in inaccuracies in viewership information, as there is no way to tell which residents are actually viewing content, or if non-residents are viewing the content. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a more accurate method of determining viewership information for content as it is being displayed.
This background information is provided to reveal information believed by the applicant to be of possible relevance to the present invention. No admission is necessarily intended, nor should be construed, that any of the preceding information constitutes prior art against the present invention.